


Pacific Downpour

by peristeronicAvian



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Childhood, Children, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, It was a dark and stormy night..., Jake Doesn't Like Spoopy Night Noises, One Shot, Rain, SO MUCH FLUFF, Storms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-05 15:13:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16370024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peristeronicAvian/pseuds/peristeronicAvian
Summary: A young Jake isn't used to weathering the tropical storms alone. Fortunately, his new friend is online! Or, Jake is scared of noisy monsters and Dirk talks him through it.





	Pacific Downpour

**Author's Note:**

> This was jammed on the Strilonde Fanjams Discord! Thank you to everyone who supported me in writing my first fanfiction! ^u^

     Rain had never been uncommon on the island. Hell, Jake had lived in the tropics for all of his seven years of life! He was an adventurer! And a little water never hurt anybody as his grandma always says!! Or, used to say, anyway. And yet, as the deluge outside grew steadily stronger, he found himself huddled under the covers, hiding from the certainly bloodthirsty monsters no doubt prowling outside. What else could that horrid cacophony of bestial babble be?

     "Dadgumit with this cats and dogs malarkey," Jake grumbled, yanking the pillow over the ear not smushed into the mattress, "How am I supposed to tell if something's trying to break in or- or if it's just the trees with all this rain-" The downside of covering his eyes was that Jake had no way to predict the booming crash of thunder that rattled the windows and set the wildlife into a fresh bout of screeching and howling.

     With a flurry of thrown-off blankets, Jake scrambled out of bed and into a crouch on the cold floor of his bedroom orb. Blindly, he stumbled across the dark room, arms outstretched and searching for the laptop he'd swiped from his Grandma's laboratory. After a few stubbed toes and a viciously comforting yelp of that curseword he wasn't supposed to say, a new flash of lightning illuminated the familiar green casing.

     "Eureka!" He whispered, extracting the laptop from its hiding spot under the scrap-metal fort. The little gray skull grinned back up at him as if to congratulate Jake on his expert tracking abilities! Well a jolly acceptance of your accolades mister skull! It wasn't even a mite of a trial traversing the thorny plains of-

     "BOOM!!!!!!!!"

      Jake raced back to the objective safety of the covers before yanking the quilt over himself and the laptop. He fumbled with the latch before he snapped it open and smashed the power button. It took an entirely unreasonable amount of time for the machine to get with its clicking and whirring. Jake tapped the enter key nervously, despite all those admonishments he's gotten about how "Patience is a virtue and mashing on the buttons is a bad thing for computers because it breaks them quicker!! :("

      Finally, the desktop appeared with a little welcoming "ping!" that already made Jake feel a little better. A double-click on the Pesterchum icon later, and he heaved a sigh of relief at the cheery orange name in his chumroll. He wasn't entirely certain of what he would have done had the handle been offline and grayed out. Fortunately, texanTides appeared to still be up and at 'em even this long past bedtime. (Jake had to check on a map when this fellow claimed to be surrounded by water, but apparently Texas did have a coastline! Who knew??)

galapagosTurtle [GT] began pestering texanTides [TT] at 23:02

GT: Hello?

GT: Strider? Are you still up perchance?

TT: No shit, Sherlock. Look at that bright ass chumhandle on your screen, announcing its prescence to every Tom, Dick, and Harry there to see it. Because there are just so many Tom, Dicks, and Harrys out there thirsting for that orange.

TT: So many.

Jake snorts at Dirk's language. He's such a coolkid!! Maybe his Bro never taught him that swearing was bad, except in super necessary situations.

GT: Er right! *updates knowlege of your wakefulness toot-sweet!*

TT: Besides.

TT: Dude.

TT: It's like, not even sunset yet here.

GT: Oh bollucks youre right!! I guess i forgot about the time difference...

TT: Yeah, I guess so.

TT: Why are you up anyway? Isn't it nearly midnight over there on irl pokemon battle island?

Jake gulped, peeking nervously out of the blanket pile. Yep, the storm was still pounding away like an especially enthusiastic drummer with a regular army of timpanis and snares and whatnot. A growl from some beast or another sent him back under the blankets like a shot.

TT: Hello? Jake??

GT: Can we not mention the deadly monsters running amok all around my abode please???

TT: ...

TT: You alright, bro?

GT: Just berries!! Never better!!!!

Thunder cracked like a whip over the island, whipping the frenzy to a nervewracking roar.

GT: JFSLIDKJSDFGOSD

TT: What the actual fuck.

GT: NOTHING.

TT: Nothing my ass.

GT: Its just getting a tad blustery over here. Nothing to worry about but the dang pokemon as you call them are puttin up quite the brouhaha!

TT: I see.

GT: Give me a quick minute and ill show you!

Jake opened the recording app. Before he clicked the circle button to start recording his proof of how noisy the damn creatures were being, he took a deep breath that poofed out his cheeks like a chipmunk. Couldn't have Dirk thinking he was some kind of wuss over a few spooky night noises!

GT: Just listen to this stuff: stupidmonsterracket.mp4

TT: Wow...

TT: Those are definitely some raucous party animals.

TT: Someone ought to tell them to tell them how fucking rude it is to go running around like a bunch of crazy raver dweebs when kids are trying to get some goddamn sleep.

TT: Like.

TT: Who even invited those nerds.

TT: They're so dumb they don't even realize there's a hellaciously tired other nerd trying to catch some zee's before he goes off on some grand adventure picking pumpkins or some shit.

GT: Yeah!

GT: Wait a doggone second did you just refer to me as a nerd too??

     Despite the RUDE AND TOTALLY NOT ACCURATE INSULT he was just slandered with, Jake couldn't help but grin at Strider's tangental ranting. Only a year and change had passed since this verbose fella had messaged him out of the blue. It had been SO weird to message someone his own age for the first time, but having a friend was nice! Especially since there really wasn't anyone else to talk to anymore. He'd been really helpful, too, giving him tips on how to evade the monsters, sending him files of those swell films his Bro had special director access to. It was oddly peaceful, trading banter back and forth over the interwebs with Dirk. The rhythm of send and receive had become familiar as breathing, in and out. He was able to forget about the scary ghost-like creatures that haunted his home.

TT: Did I fucking stutter?

TT: No way could those frames mean anything else.

TT: It's cool though; you're the rad kind of nerd who, like, uses his nerdiness for actually useful shit.

GT: Still rude!!! :P

GT: Wait a blinking second... *squints suspiciously at Strider*

TT: Again with the roleplaying.

GT: How did you know I wear glasses???

TT: ...

GT: *squinting intensifies!!*

TT: Would you believe you sound like the type of dude to wear glasses.

GT: Really dirk. You cant think up a better fib than that??

TT: Okay fine. Don't loose your shit, but you kinda left video on when you were sampling that sicknasty monster ambiance."

TT: Not to intrude on whatever the fucks going on over there, but you sure that you're OK? You kinda looked like you'd been crying or something.

TT: Mostly like you were trying to blow up an invisible balloon, but also like you'd been having a good old fashioned feelings jam with a box of kleenex.

TT: Not that shedding a few manly tears isn't a totally understandable reaction to crazy monster fuckers cranking up the bass on some cheap horror movie sfx outside.

TT: Hell, I'd probably piss my mail-ordered khaki cargo shorts if I were stuck in your place.

TT: Bro?

TT: Brotato?

TT: Jake?

galapagosTurtle [GT] has gone idle!

TT: Shit.

* * *

     Shit! (And no one could fault him if he cussed now; it was absolutely a super necessary time for some colorful metaphores!) Of all the times he could break the never-ever-send-people-on-the-internet-pictures-of-your-face rule, it had to be right after he was sniffling like a baby over a bit of noise. Dirk probably thought he was absofrigginlutely cowardly after that little mishap.

     Jake glared at the little skull over where he'd snapped the laptop shut and shoved it away from himself. Smug little boob probably was laughing at him. Huddling up in the corner of the bed, Jake sniffed back the tears pricking at the corners of his eyes again.

     "I'm not a crybaby," He snapped at the skull.

     The skull leered back at him.

     "I'm not!!" He hurled a pillow at it, then flinched when it coincided with another almighty roll of thunder. Hurridly, he dragged the pillow back towards himself and hugged it, rocking back and forth and counting the pool balls decorating the sheets. Perhaps, he thought, he should just bite the bullet and get his humiliation overwith. If Dirk started teasing him, he could always just abscond again.

     "Yeah," he said aloud. Wiping a sleeve over his eyes, he reached over and flipped the lid firmly up, sending the deriding little skull to face the wall as its punishment for mocking him.

galapagosTurtle [GT] is no longer idle!

TT: Oh, hey, you're back.

GT: I suppose i am...

TT: Dude if I had known you were going to get your panties in a twist over me getting a glimpse of your chipmunk impression, I'd'nt've said anything.

GT: Uhhhhhhhhhhh.

GT: Idntve?

TT: Shut up. Do you even know how long spellcheck tried to dump on my baller vocab right there? Like, a gajillion seconds.

GT: Heh.

GT: Listen dirk just so you know i wasnt bawling alright??

TT: Sure thing, bromide.

GT: I mean it!!

TT: Yeah, I hear ya.

TT: Well, more like read you, but you catch my drift.

TT: Hey, want to video chat?

Jake stared at the text in confusion.

GT: I beg your pardon?

TT: Come on, dude, you're just as good at reading as I am. Do you want to video chat? My bro left me a mod to add video call to Pesterchum; I'll send it to you.

Jake chewed the edge of his sleeve and considered his options. Dirk had already seen his face once that night. How much worse could it get?

GT: Sounds copacetic to me! *double finger guns!*

TT: makesomenewfriendslittlebro.app

TT: Ignore the name. I'm too lazy to go through the extremely strenuous hassle of right-clicking multiple times to change it.

GT: Its rather nice of your bro i think. :D

TT: Yeah. I guess it was.

     The file downloaded swiftly (hurray for super scientist wifi improvements!), and now a small stylized camera sat in the corner of the chat window. Hovering the mouse over the button, Jake took a deep breath. Think cool thoughts!

     He opened the camera.

     "Yo."

     Hunched over in a gaming chair far too big for him was a boy. A boy with very pointy glasses. Actually, all of Dirk seemed to be kinda prickly, like an impassive blonde hedgehog. His hair was all flattened on one side and sticking up at an angle on the other, as if he'd slept on it wet and hadn't bothered to go find a hairbrush. His face, what of it could be seen beneath the oversized triangles perched on his shnoz, was pale, much paler than Jake's own, and dotted with dozens of tiny freckles. Brownie kisses, Grandma had called them.

     "Hullo!" Jake waved at the screen, fascinated.

     "Oh, yeah, I ken it would be," Jake shivered, giving a quick glance to the shadows cast intermittantly on his small cluster of film posters. "They're always making some sort of hullaballoo, just, not normally this catankerous sounding."

     Dirk nodded slowly, processing the information. His oversized shades were beginning to slip down the bridge of his nose, and Jake poked his own glasses into place out of sympathy for the poor spikey things.

     "The rain's nice though."

     "Huh?" Jake blinked. The rain? "What's so jake about the drizzle, Strider?"

     To his credit, Dirk only stared for a moment before shaking his head and accepting the other boy's lingo as an inevitability of interacting with Jake English. "Yeah, I mean, it's got a nice rhythm and all."

     "Rhythm? Whatever are you jabbing on about?"

     "Here, I'll show you." Dirk fumbled with something on his computer for a moment, then reached past it to do... something. It was impossible to tell, no matter how close Jake squinted at the screen. Luckily, he didn't have to wait long, as Dirk slowly turned up the volume on what sounded like the recording of the rain from earlie, only, there was something else to it...

     "Is that-"

     "Kalimba synth and bass overlayed on some sicknasty monster rain samples? Yeah." He fiddled some more with a mouse, timing a few low notes to harmonize with a roll of thunder. "You like it? Not that you have to or anything, it's just something I was messing with earlier, and I thought hey you know what this track needs? Some weird manhorse exclamations. That would totally make the bass drop-"

     "It's terrific!" Jake leaned in, straining his ears catch more of the mesmerizing tune Dirk had woven on his mixing software. "Really, it's the cat's pajamas! I love it!"

     The corner of Dirk's mouth twitched up into almost half a smile. "Cool. Yeah, glad you do."

     They sat there for a while together, listening to the eerily tranquil song as Dirk patched in new progressions and swapped old effects for new. Soon, Jake was holding back yawns, struggling to stay lucid to keep listening to the music. Nudging the laptop over, he curled up before it, his chin propped on the pillow he still held close.

     The light glinting off Strider's sunglasses began to fade as he worked, toying with ideas and tossing whatever didn't jibe with his ideas. Shuffling from Jake's end of the call drew his attention for a brief moment before he went back to his mixing. Steadily, the music grew slower and slower, the kalimba almost lullabylike in its melody. Even the occasional rumble of real time thunder couldn't break the peace of the music, only fall into its place where the bass made room.

     Any fear of the monsters ouside was forgotten as Jake began to nod off, thoroughly exhausted by the night's excitement as he was. While he blearily gazed out at the twilit room far from his own, a feeling of happy contentment replaced the last of his unease. Dirk tilted his head in a nod, as if affirming that Jake should go ahead and sleep. With a drowsy smile, Jake drifted off to the sound of thunder and synth and rain.

* * *

 

     Chirping and squawking, the birds of the island woke Jake as they so often did whenever he managed to sleep past the break of dawn. With a groan, he rolled over, right into the slightly overheated plastic of his laptop. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he pat around till he found his glasses and slipped them into place. It wouldn't be the first time Jake had dropped off in the middle of a Land Before Time marathon. However, instead of happy adventurous dinos, the screen displayed a slumped heap of fluffy blonde bedhead and freckle covered arms. Apparently, instead of retiring to his own bed, Dirk had plonked out right where he sat, lulled by his own lullaby. Jake couldn't help but snicker at how funny his best friend looked, all loosey-goosey sprawled over his keyboard! He'd have to leave soon to assess the havoc that the stampedes and storms had caused, but first...

* * *

 

     The jingle of a Pesterchum notification roused Dirk from where he sat drooling on the desk.

     Wow. Much gros. So laime.

     Wiping his face with the hem of his shirt, he caught a glimpse of his own feed now fullscreen since the connection with Jake was off. Time to shut that shit down faster than Tomas the Train speeding on the interstate with the Little Einsteins rocket strapped to his caboose. No one wants to see red triangle cheek imprints first thing in the almost-afternoon. After he got that train-rocket-wreck sorted, Dirk turned his attention to the message that had woken him in the first place.

galapagosTurtle [GT] began pestering texanTides [TT] at 04:58

GT: Thanks a billion for staying up with me last night! I dont really think idve been able to catch a wink of shuteye without those "sick beats" you were cooking up till all hours.

GT: Terribly sorry i couldnt stick around to say good morning in person but adventure awaits at every turn. Theres a hodgepodge of tree debris to clear and beaches to comb before the waves reclaim their treasures after all!

GT: So ill sally forth and talk to you later chum!

galapagosTurtle [GT] ceased pestering texanTides [TT] at 05:02

galapagosTurtle [GT] began pestering texanTides [TT] at 05:03

GT: Lets boot up that video tool again sometime and chew the fat sometime! :)

GT: Maybe we can play that pocket monster japan game youre always so danged chipper over.

GT: Oop gotta split the tides coming in. Toodles!

galapagosTurtle [GT] ceased pestering texanTides [TT] at 05:04

texanTides [TT] began pestering galapagosTurtle [GT] at 07:46

TT: Anytime, man.

TT: Anytime.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment/criticism if you want; feedback is welcome!! :)  
> If you've never heard a kalimba, you can listen to one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPCG2MSGpvc  
> I might make a sequel to this in Dirk's POV, so tell me below if you'd like to see that happen!  
> Pip pip cherrio and sayonara! o/


End file.
